Prisoner of Insanity
by Midnyght Saber
Summary: Recently landed in the hospital due to an accident in the paranormal sciences lab, Vlad is slowly finding that more has happened to him than just a case of ecto-acne, but what does this mean for our young college student? Read and find out.


**Disclaimer:**_ Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International Inc. "Jeckyl and Hyde" is the property of Iced Earth and Century Media.

* * *

Vlad opened his eyes, pain stinging the right side of his head. Touching the flesh there tenderly, he felt something thick and fluid. With the encroaching darkness that surrounded him, Vlad wasn't able to see what it was, but he was pretty sure it was blood. Shaking off the cobwebs of unconsciousness, he tried to look around, wondering why he wasn't in bed. Had he fallen off of the hospital cot in the middle of the night? But…no, that wasn't possible. His hospital room had a window, and the moon would have been full tonight?

So, where was he?

Groping about in the unlit room, Vlad finally felt the sturdy wood of a chair, and he slowly moved into the vacant seat, relaxing in the plush cushioning, his mind running a mile a minute since he'd realized that he was no longer in his hospital room.

He remembered eating lunch that day, suffering as another three vials of blood were taken for testing, and worrying about how his schoolwork would be suffering due to his extended stay at the on-campus medical facility, but as to how he'd gotten out of his room and to…wherever he was now, he couldn't recall in the slightest. It had only been a week since the accident with the Proto-Portal, and he felt okay despite the heinously disgusting ecto-acne that covered most of his face.

Leaning down slightly, he rested the unhurt side of his head against his arm. Wherever he was, he was almost positive he was still on campus. The question of where, exactly, however, was lost as he fell into a restless sleep.

**What's the reason**

**For me to be this way?**

**I'm lying on the floor**

**I've broken through some door**

Three hours later, Vlad was awoken by the sensation of someone shaking him gently. His eyes fluttered open slowly, and as they focused, he found himself face-to-face with his parapsychology professor.

"Mr. Masters, it is a strange sight to find you in class before the doors have even been unlocked."

Vlad blinked, trying to restore his senses. Looking around, he found that he was, indeed, in the small room that served as the parapsychology classroom. As there was such a small class size, it was one of the many converted storage rooms. Large enough to house only the teacher's desk and fifteen student's desks, as well as the chalkboard that adorned the entire front wall, there were no windows in this room. Vlad had, in fact, crawled into one of the chairs furthest from the door, large padded wooden seats that were in the class to serve if there were ever any observers or visitors in the class.

"Vladimir, do you have any explanation for…" Suddenly, the teacher noticed the large spot of blood that had welled up on his student's face. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know," the young man croaked. "I woke up here a while ago, but I didn't know where I was. I figured the best thing to do, since I guessed I wasn't in the hospital wing any more, would be to wait here. My head…is killing me."

"Let's get you back to the doctors, Vladimir. That cut looks pretty bad."

**I don't know how I**

**Came to this**

**There's bloodlust in my eyes**

**And someone in my mind saying**

**I have forced you here**

Sitting back against the pillows of his bed, Vlad struggled to place just where he'd been last night, and why the nurse hadn't caught him, as he would have had to go by the desk to get to the door that led out of the wing. A fresh band of gauze and medical tape covered the lateral slash that traversed the right side of his face from his temple to just behind his ear, and the spot was still sore from where the doctor had stitched up the wound.

His ecto-acne, thankfully, had begun to clear up, and although the doctors couldn't figure out what was helping the healing process, Vlad was energized by the thought that he might not have to spend much longer in the facility. If he was lucky, Maddie and Jack would have figured out what went wrong with the last portal and have fixed it by the time he was back in the lab with them.

He felt a smile creep over his face at the thought of his and Jack's classmate, a stunningly beautiful redhead with a razor-sharp intellect to boot. She was the voice of reason that balanced out Jack's eager techno-centric drive and the level head that kept Vlad's perfectionist nature from turning him into an anal-retentive around their lab.

_You want her, don't you? _a voice asked, and Vlad shot up, a muscle in his back spasming from the sudden motion. He looked around the room, seeking the source of the voice, but finding no one nearby. Lying back slowly, he closed his eyes.

_You know, it might be that Jack wanted to get rid of you, Vladdie,_ the voice continued.

Vlad opened his eyes, again seeking the unseen owner of the voice.

_You keep looking around you, and yet you fail to see._

**I'm hiding right here inside you**

**Trapped in here so long**

**You'll find me growing**

**In every man**

Vlad was now terrified, even with the light shining into his room. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun wouldn't be setting for another few hours, but there was already a tense feeling of impinging shadow, and the fact that there was someone…something in the room with him that he couldn't see scared him all the more.

_Such a pitiful fool you are, Vladimir. Afraid of the dark even though you're a grown man? What kind of fool are you?_

"Who are you?" Vlad asked aloud, his eyes searching for any sign of an ectoplasmic entity in his room. Now fearing that the portal design flaw had been remedied, Vlad was more than a little unsettled by the idea of a ghost wandering around campus, especially one that sounded as crazed and dangerous as this one.

**Who is this that**

**Speaks to me?**

**Tearing down my mind**

**My reality**

Night came swiftly and silently, borne on the wings of invisible ravens, and Vlad slowly let himself drift into a restless, uncomfortable sleep, his thoughts still on the thing that had spoken to him earlier.

After a few moments of the young college student tossing about in his bed, he fell asleep, coaxed into a state of relaxation by the gentle grip of night's wandering harbinger of dreams.

"A sad affair to see, child," this entity said, crimson eyes staring down at the youth as it ran a star-dotted hand over his face. "So young you are, and yet death has already claimed you. I just hope that the darkness within you does not take you over." This creature, body adorned with the whirling night sky, pulled its hand away suddenly, as if it had been burned. Rubbing the sore palm tenderly, the creature looked at Vlad, his ruby eyes drooped as if in mourning. "But it is too late for my concern. _He_ has already claimed your heart, though you do not know it yet. I mourn for you, for your dreams will never come to be as long as he is part of you. Farewell." With that, the creature turned, dissipating into the night, vanishing into the circling abyss of the sky.

**This must certainly**

**Be the one**

**What will I pay for this?**

**This evil synthesis?**

The daylight had been devoured, the stars the only points of light on this moonless night, and in a room in the medical wing, within the only bed there, the eyes of its occupant shot open, once-human orbs running over to sanguine scarlet, the cursed and tortured soul that lay within coming awake with a violent fury.

Unseen by the nurse on staff, Vlad stood up, a ring of blackened light circling him, the sleeping human giving way to the ghost as the transformation began. Once the ring of light dissipated, the form that stood there vanished, and slowly, phazing through the outer wall, flew into the night.

**I have forced you here**

**I'm hiding right here inside you**

The creature became visible once it had reached the dormitories, walking through the fourth-story wall silently, seeking out the room of his human form's friend.

_Too long, Jack, too long. It took you too long to come to see me, too long to say you were sorry, too long to tell me that it was your fault that the machine misfired in the first place. Now, for once, you're on time. It's only too bad that it's your death that's been scheduled._

Phazing through the door that separated Jack Fenton's room from the rest of the dorms, this thing that had been Vlad smiled, fangs biting into his lower lip softly. Reaching out, ectoplasm began coursing over his hands.

And the alarms began to blare.

He panicked for a moment before phazing through the floor to hasten his escape. However, not bothering to keep track of what floor he was on, he managed to phaze all the way into the basement before both stopping his descent and becoming solid again. Stumbling in the darkness, he felt a wave of exhaustion run over his body before he fell to the cold floor, retreating into the hollow within the human Vlad, waiting until he could gain enough power to escape his confines again.

**Trapped in here so long**

**You'll find me growing**

**In every man**

This time, it was two days before anyone found Vlad. Passed out cold in the basement of the men's dorms, it was only by chance and the need of a new broom for one of the students that the janitor had come down. Finding the unconscious student, broom now forgotten, the janitor had called the medical wing immediately, and within fifteen minutes, Vlad was on his way back to the same room he had disappeared from more than forty-eight hours ago.

Though his heart and brain were functioning properly, the doctors were extremely concerned by two facts: one – Vlad's breathing was extremely shallow, almost non-existent, and two – his body temperature upon arrival had been in the high 80's. Hypothermia seemed such a strange diagnosis, especially considering the humidity and high temperatures in the basement. With the boilers down there, he should have been running a temperature, not freezing to death.

Two weeks passed before Vlad finally awoke from the coma he'd been in, the doctors having re-stabilized his temperature. There was still nothing showing as to why he'd been so cold, let alone how he had gotten halfway across campus and into a locked basement. Put under strict observation, the medical team knew that a close watch was necessary, lest they lose their patient a third time. Somnambulism was an unlikely diagnosis, what with both nurses having claimed to have not seen him leave, but they didn't plan on tossing that idea out the window just yet.

In fact, the only thing that got tossed out of the window was the intern that was monitoring Vlad four days after he'd finally awoken.

Needless to say, that was about the extent of Vlad's activities for the next few days. Last thing the specter within him needed was to be caught in the act. There were only so many things that could happen before someone got suspicious. And despite the odd situation that Vlad had already found himself in, the only thing that came of it was the cause of the intern's death being labeled a suicide.

**I'm out of control**

He had no idea what was happening. There were blocks of his life that he couldn't remember, and for a man who prided himself on his memory, Vlad was at a mental impasse. Though he hadn't heard the voice since that night so long ago, he believed that it was just possible that the specter wasn't so much after him as it was out for blood.

Specifically, though the reason was beyond Vlad's understanding at the time, it was out for Jack Fenton's blood.

**Evil takes my soul**

Another black-out took him.

Another few days of time lost to him.

And the next time he woke up, he was in Jack Fenton's room, collapsed on the floor, his left hand severely paralyzed.

Jack was leaning over him, and for a moment, Vlad could feel a welling surge of hatred towards his friend, but the sensation passed like a cold breeze from his mind, and he sat up, Jack's strong arms helping him up.

"You okay, Vladdie?"

Vlad nodded. "I think so. What am I doing here?"

"Dunno. I woke up with you on the floor."

Another return trip to the medical wing.

Another battery of tests.

No more answers for what was going on.

And to top it all off, a resurgence of the ecto-acne.

- - - - -

A year had passed since the accident, and for the last four months, Vlad had been in this god-forsaken little closet of a hospital room in Madison.

These last four months had been hell.

First came the news that, due to the circumstances, Vlad was going to be dropped from the paranormal studies program he was in, but since he'd at least finished two years, he was going to be given his associate's degree.

Then came the news that the ecto-acne, though it had finally subsided, was a ticking time bomb in his system. Whenever it flared up again, Vlad would be sure that his death would not be too far behind. They had no idea what to do, especially with the field of paranormal sciences being such a new one, so there was little that they could offer Vlad.

Finally, near the one-year anniversary of the accident, Vlad found out just how right that little voice had been. Maddie and Jack were going out, and he only found out when they came to see how he was doing – together – Maddie hanging on Jack's arm like a trophy to rub in Vlad's face.

The only thing that had been a blessing was Vlad's escape from the ghost that had haunted his thoughts the entire time he'd been on campus.

That is, until he returned.

Sixteen months after the accident had brought the specter into the world in the first place, and nearly as long since the voice had spoken to him, it came again in the night, waking Vlad from a sound sleep.

_You are so easy to fool, Vladimir. Don't you realize that you can't get away from me?_

**I can feel you inside me**

_**Of course you can**_

Vlad curled under the covers, trying in vain to block out the sound of the malevolent voice, knowing deep down that he would never silence the voice, no matter how hard he tried. Despite all the thought Vlad gave to refute what his senses were already telling him, he understood. The ghost was not following him or haunting him. The ghost _was_ him.

"You can't control me," Vlad said, his voice breaking. "I know a lot about ghosts, and I know that you can't overshadow me forever."

**You're not stronger than me**

_**I am you**_

_You still don't want to admit it, do you? You're too afraid of what it might mean. Come now, Vladimir, you know as well as I that I am not overshadowing you in the least._

"You aren't me," Vlad snapped, his voice firm and cold.

_No, Vladimir, I am not. I am more than you, as a human, could ever be. I am the power that lay far within, finally awoken and free to roam._

"Stop it!" he shouted, trying to quell the fear that was growing in his heart.

**I won't let you**

_**I will own you**_

_You can't stop me. You don't need to fight me. I can give you everything that you want, everything you have ever desired._

"At what cost?" he whimpered.

_Give into my control, Vladimir. Give into the power that I have. I will make all bow down to you. I will make Jack suffer and make dear Madelyn yours._

"At what cost?!" he roared as he sat up, and the machines at his side started blaring. Apparently, he'd pulled a lead off, as the display was showing that his heart was no longer beating.

Three nurses ran into the room, two of them trying to get Vlad to settle down. They'd heard him scream right before the machines started their own racket. The third filled a syringe, and as she walked up to the bed, poked Vlad in the arm, administering a small dose of sedatives.

The first nurse replaced the lead that had been pulled off and left, the nurse who had sedated Vlad walking out behind her. The remaining nurse checked Vlad's arms, making sure that he hadn't pulled out any of the needles. Seeing that his IV was still in place, the nurse walked out, heading to the supply closet to grab a few restraints, and once he had them in hand, returned to the room and secured Vlad to his bed.

**No, you can't have me!**

Behind closed eyes, Vlad could sense nothing of the world around him, but was all too aware of the entity within him that was fighting for control. A ghost – he was sure of it – had managed to maintain the overshadowing for almost a year and a half, though the realization of how that had come to be frightened him to no end.

**I won't let you**

**Destroy me**

**You took away my life**

**With your wicked seed**

Two years had passed since the accident, and Vlad sat in the study that occupied one of the rooms on the first floor of his house. Hanging his head, he slowly rested his forehead against his arms, sighing heavily. He'd had just returned from the latest business venture for Masters Enterprises, and yet again, the sting of guilt had found him. The third merger his company had undergone, it was, as the previous two, aided heavily by the overshadowing of the CEO he'd gone to see. Having given up his fight with the spirit that had been bound to him during the accident, he was quickly gaining notoriety as a ruthless business mogul and was well on his way to acquiring a fortune enough for him to start work on his own paranormal sciences lab.

Hopefully, the ghost within him wouldn't be able to find out that he was searching for a way to cleanse himself of the malevolent specter for good.

**If you're able to take control**

**You'll bring damnation upon my soul**

_What are you doing, Vladimir?_ the voice asked, the voice somewhat perturbed.

"What does it look like?"

_You're working on new designs for the Proto-Portal…but why?_

"Just trying to figure out what went wrong and fix it. Even if I'm not working with Jack and Maddie anymore, it's still worth it to try and crack the barrier between our worlds."

_And what happens when you do? Do you seek to control that world as well?_

"I never said I wanted control. I'm doing this for the love of science. Besides, I'm not the only person that could benefit from this technology working right."

_And what about me?_

"What do you mean?"

_I have given you power. Maybe you can use that power to bring some of the denizens of the other world under your thumb. Every powerful entity must have lackeys to take care of the lesser work for him, shouldn't he?_

"Yes, but why should I concern you with any of that? I already have an arsenal of weapons at my disposal, so any ectoplasmic interference can be easily dealt with."

Something in the way Vlad had said that triggered something with the ghost that had merged with him, and the specter immediately forced its way into Vlad's mind, taking over the human's body.

_What are you doing? _Vlad asked, panic taking over his voice.

"What does it look like, weakling? You seek to find what went wrong with the Proto-Portal to reverse what happened to you, not to open the gateway. I will not let you get rid of me!" he screamed, grabbing a vial of green viscous fluid. Loading the vial into the chamber of one of the guns, he smiled as the solution merged with the ecto-ammo already loaded into the pistol.

_No! _Vlad shouted, unable to regain control of his own body. _You don't know what you're doing!_

"I know well enough what this is," the ghost said, pointing the gun at his own arm, firing the weapon. With an agonizing scream of pain, he fell to the floor, writhing, as the gun skittered across the cold lab floor. The band of shadow appeared Vlad's waist, and it slid up and down his body, the ghost's screams intermingling with Vlad's as the contents of the vial worked their way through the veins of its target.

Their cries of pain reverberated in the small room, dying away as the two fell silent, a small smile crossing his features as Vlad fell into unconsciousness.

**I have forced you here**

**I'm hiding right here inside you**

A few hours later, blood-red eyes shot open, and Vlad stumbled to his feet, groggy and still in pain, especially where his head had made contact with the lab floor. Turning, his eyes fell across the gun that had slid from his hand when it had been fired. Looking at his arm, a small ring of green glared at him, and Vlad fell to his knees, weeping.

**Trapped in here so long**

**You'll find me growing**

**In every man**

By introducing ecto-weapon ammunition, created by the production of artificial ectoplasm, to his system, there would have been nothing done save for the small wound that was glowing slightly in the dim light. However, the vial that had been added was a sample of ectoplasm that Vlad had collected from the ghost that lay within him. It was supposed to be part of what would help him remove the specter when the Portal was finished. Added to his human bloodstream, however, it had recombined his own cells with the etheric essence of the ghost.

He was now permanently bonded with the evil being that had been introduced to his system in the Proto-Portal explosion.

In his rage and anguish, Vlad unleashed a bloodcurdling cry to the heavens, the reality of his transformation into something so inhuman crushing his heart.

"Why do you fear this?" he asked himself, the ghost's voice issuing forth from his own mouth. "Why do you fear what you have become, Vladimir?"

"Leave me alone…" Vlad muttered, his own voice now speaking.

"Never," the ghost replied.

"Why?" Vlad choked out.

"Because," the specter answered, his voice dripping with malice, "I am Vlad Plasmius. I _am_ you."


End file.
